Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Do I own too many gadgets? Nah!


I was looking at all of my gadgets and I was wondering if I have too many. Here's a list of what I personally own and how I use them.

1. Android Smartphone - I use it every day for everything from email, to web browsing, Evernote, calendar, phone calls, Netflix, Kindle, accessing files, and much more.

2. Nexus 7 Tablet - email, web browsing, Evernote, Netflix, music, Kindle and more. Use it for travle and conferences. Love the 7" form factor - bigger screen than smartphone, but easier to hold than a full size tablet.

3. HP TouchPad Tablet - pretty much everything I use 1 and 2 for, but in a larger form factor. My wife also uses it alot. I have Android dual booting on it, but mainly use the webOS boot. It was a great tablet that had a lot of promise before it was cancelled.

4. Laptop - my full size laptop serves as my home computer. It has Windows 7 and I can do anything on it. It is also the main place my files are stored. All the files are also backed up through SugarSync and Dropbox, Google Drive and to an external drive. They are also backed up to my Netbook (see #7 below)

5. Livescribe Pen and notebook - I use this to take notes at meetings. It automatically syncs the notes via WiFi to my Evernote account. I can then access the notes anywhere. I take notes very quickly with a pen and can add symbols and drawings with it. Much better than using a keyboard or tablet and stylus.

6. Chromebook - I have a CR-48 Chromebook that I use as a lightweight laptop. The keyboard makes content creation and data/writing things much easier than on a tablet. I also use it to test out apps for our district's Chromebook initiative.

7. Netbook - I used to use the Netbook as my travel device. Now it is a great backup device for travel and portability, but it is also a data backup device. All of my files and data are backed up to Sugarsync and Dropbox and Google Drive and then they are also synced to the Netbook. I also have my Evernote account backed up here. Great way to use an older device.


So, what do you think? Too many tech toys, or just enough, or not enough?